Gary Hathaway: WRAL shouldn’t self-censor shows

Regarding the Nov. 14 news article “WRAL silences parts of ‘Saturday Night Live’ episode”: I am shocked and outraged that WRAL management decided to take it upon themselves to edit the content of this week’s SNL.

There is already a federal governing body in place to censor content that is deemed sexually explicit, or that contains inappropriate language for general audiences. For a local station to arbitrarily decide what content it deems to be appropriate outside of this context is nothing other than an assault on the First Amendment and comes dangerously close to the actions taken by dictatorial leaders of nations that deliberately limit the media to the detriment of a free and informed citizenry.

How can WRAL management possibly justify the actions taken by the station?

This story was originally published November 15, 2016 at 6:26 PM with the headline "Gary Hathaway: WRAL shouldn’t self-censor shows."